Catch the show until Saturday, April 30.
This is a rare chance to see Harold Pinter’s 1964 masterpiece at Curve – and one not to be missed.
The Homecoming centres on the unexpected return of Teddy, Professor of Psychology and his wife Ruth to his old family home, inhabited by his curmudgeonly old father, the retired butcher Max, and brothers Sam, an aspiring boxer, and Lenny, whose ‘occupation’ is implicitly sordid though never stated.
Teddy’s attempts to reconcile himself with the family and navigate the overbearing atmosphere of mutual antagonism and power games within the house forms the core of the play, with Jamie Glover’s direction building the tension to delicious heights.
Keith Allen (seen recently on TV in The Pembrokeshire Murders) is perfectly cast as Max and clearly relishes delivering the old man’s outpourings, which range from menacing tirades to sentimetalised eulogies to a family life long past.
Matthew Horne (most widely known as Gavin from Gavin and Stacey) is equally engaging as Lenny, crossing swords in hilarious style with his father and, in one memorable exchange with brother Teddy, turning psychological postulations into comedy with true verbal aplomb.
Taut as a drum, with Pinter’s trademark pauses adding to the intensity, this production will keep theatre-goers who are new to the play on the edge of their seats until the final bizarre business arrangement the family arrive at in the last act.
Enthralling stuff, and at the time of writing tickets are still available.
Treat yourself…
Written by Mark Holmes
Mark is production editor at Bauer Media working on Classic Bike magazine and is a proofreader for Niche Magazine. Previously, he worked on Top Gear Magazine for BBC Worldwide.
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